i will not glorify ignorance, mine or others'

When Did Being Smart Become a Political Deficit? | The New York Times, Letters to the Editor

As I read “Obama’s From Main St., Ain’t He?,” by Roger Cohen (column, The New York Times on the Web, Aug. 28), I started feeling a combination of rage and sorrow about the fact that being smart, articulate and well educated continues to be read as a deficit.

Let’s bring back the idea that being well read, cleverly witty, sometimes serious and sometimes silly, and maybe knowing a bit of art, music and history are all worthy goals.

Barack Obama is Main Street? Let’s hope so.

- Jane Nordli Jessep
Westport, Conn., Aug. 28, 2008

I remember a moment a few years ago when I was living in Oregon and at the tail end of a relationship with a man I loved. We were arguing about communication problems between us (I was wanting to be more open and upfront and expressive, he himself admitted he had serious issues with communicating himself openly). I asked him why he couldn't be honest with me about how he was feeling about us, why wasn't he trusting me when all I wanted was to help him, try to understand him.

He then lashed out - ad hominem - and accused me of being 'above him'. He said how could he even talk to me when I keep using fancy words and spewing out these ideas he has no knowledge of. Then he said that he saw himself as a simple man without much ambition but having me around made him feel really stupid and we were on two very different levels and he felt he couldn't reach me.

It was the very first time in my life I actually felt.....badly, about being so smart and learned in some way. Granted, I don't have a PhD, just a fine arts degree from a good art college, I don't consider myself some great intellectual who reads nothing but the classics, admires Hume and Russell, and looks down on those who have never even heard of Rakmaninov. I like that stuff, yes, but I don't begrudge others who don't like those, just as I don't begrudge them for not being into video games and roller coasters like I am.

But he did say such things to me, and I questioned myself, erroneously so. I thought, Is this what it's about? Having to dumb yourself down for someone because they don't know those fancy words you use? What he told me was one of the most hurtful things anyone has ever said to me. It hit me deeply.

< The Jefferson Library. in Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's crib.

Reading the op-ed piece above (and the original piece its writer was replying to) angered me. I realize that I should never, ever feel badly again for simply trying to better myself, exercise intellectual self improvement, learn new things, strive to be smarter, and use my knowledge pragmatically and constructively, not just for my own benefit but for the benefit of others.

The glorification of ignorance is one of the most profound fuck-ups in American society today. Our entire country, our culture, is infused with it to the point where many of us actually express pride in being ignorant! Well, fuck that! I am not ever going to stoop so low. I've worked my ass off trying to be a better version of me than yesterday, last month, last year. Why should I throw all my achievements away just to fit in? After all, everyone - EVERYONE - has the exact same chance as I to better themselves. The difference is that I took that chance.

If anything, the one thing I should be proud of is the fact that I brought myself up this high. I am the one who actually got off my ass and looked up strange new fancy words in the dictionary to know what they mean to be able to use them. I don't spoon feed myself garbage from mainstream media because I know better. Why should I be ashamed of that?

I think the ancient Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus owned us when he stated:

Your life is too short and you have important things to do. Be discriminating about what images and ideas you permit into your mind. If you yourself don't chooose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest. It is the easiest thing in the world to slide imperceptibly into vulgarity. But there's no need for that to happen if you determine not to waste your time and attention on mindless pap.*

* As intepreted by Sharon Lebell in The Art Of Living: The Classical Manual On Virtue, Happiness, And Effectiveness (Harper-Collins 1994).

Related:
Dumbass: An American Standard? | a space alien
Stupid in America: Why your kids are probably dumber than Belgians | Reason Online